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Feature Writing - JRN300 Fall 2025
Course
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David Vaughan
In this course we look at some interesting ways of breaking the rules we have learned in other classes.
/files/3125989/JRN300-Feature_Writing-F25.pdf
This course moves beyond basic journalistic reporting and news writing. Students will gain experience in writing longer, impactful feature articles. We’ll work on techniques to find angles and develop them into research-based non-fiction stories that have characters, show development and follow a structural, narrative arc from beginning to end. The class is run as a magazine editorial team, with students pitching their stories and workshopping their drafts. We shall look at different ways of writing for different platforms and at multimedia aspects of feature writing, including audio and video.
Here is the course outline:
1. Lesson 1
Sep 3
Introduction to the course |
2. Lesson 2
Sep 11
Profile Writing |
3. Lesson 3
Sep 17
Interviewing |
4. Lesson 4
Sep 24
Introducing Features |
5. Lesson 5
Oct 1
Profile Writing: peer reviews |
6. Lesson 6
Oct 8
Feature Writing: finding the story |
7. Lesson 7
Oct 15
Feature Articles: Student presentations |
8. Lesson 8
Nov 5
Prix Bohemia: Assessing radio reports submitted to the international competition Prix Bohemia, October 2025. |
9. Lesson 9
Nov 12
Visit from Jan Bělíček from the online newspaper Deník ALARM. |
10. Lesson 10
Nov 19
Prix Bohemia - continued Feature articles - progress and the art of the ending Preparation for next week's visit from the novelist, diplomat and journalist Marek Toman |
11. Lesson 11
Nov 25
Visit from Ray Furlong from RFE/RL |
12. Lesson 12
Nov 27
Rewriting a feature story |
13. Working with sound...
Nov 29
Using sound as part of the story. |
14. Lesson 11
Nov 20
Meeting Marianne Allweiss from German public-service radio ARD |
15. Lesson 12: Sound MixesUsing sound to tell a story |